Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-10-22
SPECIMENS OF THE "oUEER."
An Expert in Counterfeit Sfoney-Bogus
 Gold and Silver Coin.

Gold and Silver Coin.
 The laws of the United States provide penalties not only for making, uttering and passing, but for ''having in posses sion" counterfeit money, and when a man can safely come to you and flash up' roll of bills as large as your arm in one hundreds, fifties, twenties and so on down, produce from one pocket hand ful of glittering ''yellow boys" and from the other half a pint of what look like silver coins, all counterfeit, he must be some one quite out of the ordinary.
 Such a man is James H. Cables, of New York. an expert in spotting counter felt money, and an attache of Tho United States Treasury Counterfeit Detector, who has just made one of his periodical visits to Detroit. Mir. Cables, under a special license from the secretary of the treasury, carries with him about S1, TOO in the cleverest of spurious paper, gold and silver currency, every nickel of which would be good with any ordinary person for its equivalents in beer and bologna. He devotes his time and speci- mems to enlightening the simple as to the dangers of pinchbeck bills and coin, and the necessity of being supplied with a counterfeit detector.
 Mir. Cables is perfect intelligence of fee as to all matters relating to the ''queer," and, although he is the avowed enemy of counterfeiters, regards his choicest specimens of criminal art with something of the pride that connois- seur in prints feels in displaying an ar tist's proof of Rafael or Morgan.
 Perhaps he feels little more joy in exhibiting the almost perfect work of those great masters, Thomas Ballard and Charles Ulrich, than in any other. These are hung on the eye line of his gallery, and have every advantage of light and situation.
 Ulich did long time in the Ohio peni- tentiary at Columbus, and while there made portrait of Governor "Foghorn' Allen, which is now the best extant. Ii was probably not in recognition of this service that he was pardoned in 1876. A number of well meaning ladies, imme- diately upon his release, established him in the engraving business at Columbus, but this was too slow for him, and in less than year he was floating a finely exc cuted counterfeit of $5 bill on a Penn sylvania bank The plate was run dowI ill 1880, but the bills still travel and art exceedingly dangerous.
 Ballard, the other premier, is now doing thirty years at the Albany peniten tiary, under sentence imposed i'll 1875 Another excellent ajet dart in Mir. Ca bles' gallery is the magnificent $10( bill made and floated by Smith ane Brockaway in 19s0.. This would easily pass with any one having small chang for it, unless he were a real expert.
 One valuable suggestion made by Mir Cables is that any United States treasur, note, the number of which is not divisi ble by four, is a counterfeit.
 A fact not generally understood is that the margin of profit in the making O bogus gold coin is very small. The ten and twenties it is almost impossible tt make heavy enough sto deceive any ou' but a pure amateur. In s5 pieces MT Cables shows one which, with its mixtur, of silver and fine lettering, is only dis tinguishable from the genuine by a sligh unevenness of lettering. It will stand tht acid test almost perfectly. This coin ha. an intrinsic value of $4.60. leaving only
 
 ture and the risk of a term in prison.
 In silver coins there is now an elegan ! and complete line of counterfeits. Th' best of these is dollar floated since 1879 i full weight and true ring. but composed of Rabbit metal thinly coated with silver i This costs twenty-five cents laid down a the factory, and is disposed of to ''shov ! CTS" for fifty cents, leaving profit of 100 | per cent. to cover risk. A fifty cent piece of 1872, is also bad 'un. It is built O antimony, tin and Rabbit metal, is O full size and weight, clean cut and hand some, but has greasy feel"
 The Canadian bills in Mir. Cables cab inet are mostly well engraved, but are de fective in lathe work and paper. In ths case of our own notes the peculiarity O the paper is one of the most difficult point for the counterfeiter to overcome.
 Since April, 1886 seventeen new coun terfeits of paper money have been dis covered.-Detroit Free Press.